A benefit and not cause for alarm
Published 7:28 am Saturday, November 16, 2019
“They aren’t going to make my kids go to school until 6 p.m.,” a commenter said, threatening to pull her children from public school and put them in private school.
She was referring to a report on Facebook, from a local Ohio TV station, that stated lawmakers were considering extending the school day to 10 hours.
Comments poured in of a similar nature, with enraged parents saying that they would not get to see their children, who would be “kept from” them, and worrying about how they would find the time to serve them dinner or give them a bath.
These would all be valid concerns, however, there is only one problem — An extension of the school day is not what is being proposed.
The misleading headlines and sloppy reporting were referring to a proposal from U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Kamala Harris, D-California, The Family Friendly Schools Act, which would create a grant program, which is voluntary, which would give districts who apply the resources to stay open during the entire work day throughout the school year.
The idea is that many parents work until a later hour than the end of the school day and that this would allow schools the funding to staff and keep their buildings open, offering things such as extracurricular and enrichment programs, as well as providing an evening meal.
Contrary to the alarmist reports, which came from a few TV outlets, in no way does the proposal extend the school day or require students to stay beyond the normal time, nor does it force teachers to work longer hours into the evening.
Whether it’s the nature of the beast with television, in which producers are asked to summarize stories as briefly as possible, or a rush to fill air time without reading up on the proposal, the fact is, multiple outlets got this story wrong.
This program would be a major positive for many areas of Ohio, with low-income schools getting funding to be a Family Friendly School, serving as community and enrichment center for youth
The schools would collaborate with community partners to develop the program, offering academic, athletic, or enrichment opportunities for students. The legislation would also provide for summer learning programs.
These are all much-needed by areas like Lawrence County. Locally, some school districts here are already offering similar programs, but on a limited and smaller scale. This legislation could allow them to expand these offerings to a wider schedule.
Brown and Harris’ proposal is definitely worthy of consideration and we urge the media outlets who rushed their reporting on this to revisit the story and provide better context so that the public will have a true understanding of what is being proposed.